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| 6 | ->''"The mind is its own place and in itself, can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."'' |
| 7 | -->-- ''Literature/ParadiseLost'' |
| 8 | |
| 9 | An increasingly popular trope in fantasy novels is the idea that whatever you expect to happen when you die is pretty much what you get — effectively, YourMindMakesItReal. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | So if you believe that your soul will remain chained to the [[{{Karma}} karmic wheel]] and you'll be [[{{Reincarnation}} reincarnated]] as a cow, then that's what will happen. If you believe you'll sit at the right hand of {{God}} and sing hosannahs, that's what will happen. If you believe there is nothing after death, then all you'll find is [[TheNothingAfterDeath nothing]]. If you believe that you'll ''become'' nothing after death, then that's just what you'll do — [[CessationOfExistence or not do]]. If you believe in FireAndBrimstoneHell, but don't see yourself as worthy of escaping it, then down you go. Of course, it means generally good but unduly guilt-ridden people will go to {{Hell}}, while people that spend their lives picketing funerals will go to {{Heaven}}, but nobody said it was ''fair''. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | In this scenario, Hell is not a literal place of eternal {{fire and brimstone|Hell}}, but a metaphor for a psychological state of mind suffering from angst, remorse, pessimism, and depression. [[Literature/ParadiseLost The mind is its own place, can make a Heaven out of Hell or a Hell out of Heaven.]] If you are a [[TheCynic Pessimist]], then [[FinaglesLaw you would expect the worst out of everything]], and if you expect the worst out of everything, then you would think that you are in [[CrapsackWorld an inescapable Hell]] and therefore [[StrawNihilist succumb to Absolute Despair]]. If you made a depressing suicidal {{trag|edy}}ic life full of regrets and unwanted memories, then the replay of these memories would MindRape you to Absolute DespairEventHorizon, and you would become a Pessimist with low self-esteem. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Your pessimism would then generate an isolated PocketDimension within an impenetrable [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Absolute Terror Field]] or [[Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica Witch Barrier]] that isolates yourself from the hope and light of God, other souls, or the virtues they represent, for all of eternity or until you somehow manage to [[EpiphanicPrison tear away your self-inflicted torment and break free]]. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | In theology, this is known as ''Eternal Separation''. Hell is the despair and isolation that a person inflicts upon themselves by rejecting {{God}}'s love, which God can't stop without taking away their Free Will. This is demonstrated by the [[Literature/TheFourGospels Parable of the Prodigal Son]] courtesy of UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} himself. The Prodigal Son (sinners) left the father (God) thinking that it is "[[Literature/ParadiseLost better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven]]", but eventually he realized the futility of his ways, and the father is more than happy to take the son back and forgive him. This also solves the Problem of Hell (reconciling God's mercy with the existence of eternal suffering), and removes the GodIsEvil implications of FireAndBrimstoneHell, Literature/DantesInferno and other traditional portrayals. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | Adherents of ''Universal Reconciliation'' take this further and say that Eternal Separation isn't eternal. If God is all forgiving, and you asked for forgiveness, then God is more than happy to forgive you and the eternal separation won't last. Only the Fallen's own pride and hatred are the very factors that keep them from doing just that, delaying their salvation. For this reason, Universalism is incompatible with this trope's belief-making damnation, for if the [[CessationOfExistence person believes they will cease to exist]], they can never be reconciled, ''for there is no one there to forgive''. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Another dubious point in the religious interpretation above is "For what reason would a Person Willingly choose to punish themselves?" As stated above, a total monster [[KarmaHoudini may refuse and thus escape that sort of retribution]] due to lack of empathy and remorse; an [[GuiltComplex overly sensitive]] but well-meaning decent person may choose to carry that burden, akin to a DisproportionateRetribution or MisplacedRetribution. Why would the benevolent deity in question allow that injustice to happen? Claims that one would be forced to endure their worst nightmares based solely on specific actions they commit, regardless of how they feel about it, could explain this, though what precisely are the choices that condemn a person, and whether that judgement system is reasonable or not, is another topic. |
| 22 | |
| 23 | Subtrope of PersonalizedAfterlife. A literal version of this trope can result from RealityWarpingIsNotAToy when a RealityWarper consciously or subconsciously creates their own hell. |
| 24 | |
| 25 | ---- |
| 26 | !!Examples: |
| 27 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 28 | |
| 29 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 30 | * ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': The final fate of every deceased Apostle. Since they are humans turned into demons by [[MoralEventHorizon sacrificing the people they love and opening up to evil]], and with the only commandment being "do whatever you want", which includes the most depraved actions (rape, genocide, etc.), if they die, their soul is dragged to Hell by the spirits of their own victims. |
| 31 | * In ''Anime/HellGirl'', each person's vision of hell is what hell looks like to them when Ai Enma comes to take them away. |
| 32 | * An interesting twist in ''Manga/HellsAngels''. The story is set in Hell, but it is later mentioned that souls' ultimate destiny is {{Reincarnation}}, and Hell (and possibly Heaven too) only exist because [[spoiler:Abel's grudge over being killed by Cain extended to all of humanity. He created the afterlife and forced people to believe in it by means of philosophy and religion. Those who felt guilty in life went straight to Hell]]. The main character comes to Hell with her mortal body by accident (?) and puts a stop to all this. |
| 33 | * In the religious film ''Anime/TheLawsOfEternity'', Ryuta and Yuko venture with God Eagle into Hell to rescue Patrick and Roberto. As they keep descending, GE explains each tier of Hell, which is tailor-made for a specific sin. Earlier on, he explained to the gang that the Spirit World is a reflection of one's mind, so those with "sinful" thoughts will be moved to Hell, where their appearance and personality are warped to reflect their real, "sinful" selves. However, as Yuko's dialogue with Helen Keller, Florence Nightingale, and Mother Theresa in the Bodhisattva Realm can explain, there ''is'' a way to escape Hell, and it's acknowledging the "truth of Buddha." |
| 34 | * Witches' Barriers in ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' are made up of symbols representing [[spoiler:all the sins, regret and despair made by a Magical Girl in life]]. |
| 35 | ** ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'': [[spoiler:Homura creates a world at the end of the movie that is bar none the happiest we've seen in the series: all of the characters (and newcomer Nagisa) are alive and well, Kyouko and Sayaka are sharing Pocky together, the aforementioned Nagisa is a companion for Mami, and Madoka has been freed of her godly duties and is back with her family. There are no Witches to be seen (though their familiars seem to be just wandering around not hurting anyone), and the Incubators are living a [[LaserGuidedKarma long-deserved]] tortured existence under Homura's heel. But in order to accomplish this, Homura essentially stabbed Madoka in the back, erased her memories and stuffed her in a GildedCage, and as far as Homura is concerned she has irrevocably ruined their friendship; for her, this happy little world is one of crushing guilt, an existence without Madoka's friendship or affection. The others may be having fun in this new universe, but for Homura, it's misery beyond her worst nightmares, all at her own hand, and all of it deserved in her mind.]] |
| 36 | * Almost everyone in ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'' is essentially in one of these, as they are too involved in their own troubles to do the one thing which can actually save them, but [[spoiler:especially Anthy until the end of the series]]. |
| 37 | * [[BigBad Queen Nehellenia]] from ''[[Franchise/SailorMoon Sailor Moon SuperS]]'' is trapped within a pocket dimension behind her mirror, and spends all season trying to get out. [[spoiler:When she does, she's defeated by the good guys and reveals her true form: a withered old hag monster. She escapes back into her prison, preferring a life of loneliness over accepting [[VainSorceress such an ugly appearance.]]]] (Incidentally, the [[Creator/KunihikoIkuhara same person]] who made ''[[Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena Utena]]'' directed this season.) |
| 38 | * In ''Manga/ShamanKing'' souls merge with the Great Spirit when they die, moving into various "communities" within it. What community you end up in depends on your personality. Chocolove ends up in a realm of suffering due to his unresolved guilt over his previous murders. |
| 39 | * The third option in ''Manga/{{Skyhigh}}''. |
| 40 | * The ultimate fate of Younger Toguro, NobleDemon villain in ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'', is practically a TearJerker due to this: [[spoiler:As his crimes were the result of extenuating circumstances, Koenma tells him he's eligible for less severe punishment. Toguro, however, has far too heavy a conscience to accept and instead demands to be sent to a specific part of Hell — one that he ''knows'' will be ten thousand years of unspeakable pain, followed by CessationOfExistence. The last time he's ever seen in the series, he's walking through the door leading to it.]] |
| 41 | [[/folder]] |
| 42 | |
| 43 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 44 | * ''ComicBook/TheChroniclesOfWormwood'' has a system that largely revolves around this, but some adjustments are made on a case-by-case basis. For instance, suicide bombers go to Heaven and get 72 virgins, but all 72 are babies that they have to care for throughout eternity. Also, the road to hell is literally paved with mimes, who go to hell regardless. |
| 45 | ** It also averts the usual injustices associated with this trope - guilt-stricken innocents going to Hell and shameless monsters going to Heaven - because one of the features of the afterlife in this setting is that you become inescapably aware of ''what you deserve''. This is hinted to be one of the greatest punishments of Hell since most of the damned suffer from MoralMyopia of one form or another. |
| 46 | * Green Lantern [[ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica Alan Scott]] once was forced to venture into Hell, where he found his old enemy Blackbriar Thorn. They fought at the Suicides' Wood, and Thorn used his sorcery to animate the trees, the embodiment of the souls punished in the Wood, to bind Scott. Even though he was no longer unable to affect wood, Green Lantern refused to break free from the trees, as he realized it would be like shredding their arms apart. The realization that someone ''cares'' about them, even in the depths of Hell, exorcises the souls from the trees. |
| 47 | * ''ComicBook/HulkTheEnd'', set centuries after all of mankind except for [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk the title character]] died in a nuclear war, concludes with the Bruce Banner part of the Hulk dead and the savage personality trapped alone on a nuclear-ravaged Earth with nothing to look forward to except wandering aimlessly and being daily devoured by gigantic mutant cockroaches from which he always heals. Hulk could have died with Banner or die at any time by reverting to Banner. But the Hulk's own stubbornness at admitting weakness ever, viewing dying as a form of defeat or weakness, the idea he needs someone else, or being anything less than the "strongest one there is" would in his mind mean his old, dead enemies triumphant over him means he is trapped in a hell he could escape at any time. |
| 48 | * When ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'' is (temporarily) in Hell, he finds out that Satan isn't actively torturing the damned souls, they're making their own afterlife miserable by sticking to the same petty obsessions they had in life. It's hinted ''Satan'' suffers the most from having to put up with an eternity of their whining. |
| 49 | * The French comic ''ComicBook/LeDernierTroyen'' (a sci-fi version of Literature/TheIliad) has Tartarus filled with self-inflicted punishment and reward. Laocoön is forever tortured by what he deems his failure to defend Troy, while another loathsome traitor has a magnificent villa in a state of constant partying, because that's what they both think they deserve. |
| 50 | * This is the Hell shown in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' and its spinoff, ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'' (though not everyone goes to Lucifer's particular Hell, so not everyone chooses their own damnation). |
| 51 | ** Lucifer states explicitly as much in ''The Sandman'': |
| 52 | --->''"Ten billion years spent providing a place for dead mortals to torture themselves. And like all masochists, they called the shots -- 'Burn me', 'Freeze me', 'Eat me', 'Hurt me'. And we did.\ |
| 53 | They live their own tiny lives. I do not live their lives for them. And then they die, and they come here (having transgressed against what they believed to be right), and expect us to fulfill their desire for pain and retributions. I don't make them come here."'' |
| 54 | ** In ''Death: At Death's Door'', several damned souls are people who ''definitely'' don't deserve to be in Hell but are because they sincerely believe they deserve it. For example, one was a little boy who was beaten by his mother. While he was alive, during beatings, his mother said she hated him for being born because the pregnancy ruined her figure, so he naïvely thinks suffering in Hell will make her love him. |
| 55 | ** When Lucifer closes Hell and its inhabitants wander the Earth, a boy who encounters them notices that they seem to have brought their own hells with them. He even manages to [[EpiphanicPrison convince one of them to give it up and come with him]]. |
| 56 | ** Also, while Lucifer is closing Hell, he finds unique trouble in the last occupant, a guy who staked himself to a wall, refusing to leave because he needed to pay penance for the men, women, and children he slaughtered in life. Lucifer gets him to leave by saying no one remembers what he did centuries ago. |
| 57 | --->'''Breschau of Livonia:''' I am Breschau of Livonia. I ripped out the tongues of those who spoke against me and cut the unborn babes from the wombs of my enemies women, that they would not become warriors to rise against me. I took my mother by force, and I strangled my sister when she would not consent to my advances. Soon my name was whispered in the night by mothers to terrify their babes into obedience, I am Breschau, who bathed in the blood of children. I am Breschau, who forced the true prophets of the lord to dance upon plates of hot iron, under which fires were burning, and I laughed as they danced. I am Breschau, and when my mistress was unfaithful to me, I cut the nose from her face and wore it about my neck. As for the woman, I had her sewn to her lover, and, skin to skin, I left them in the desert to be eaten by ravens, and I laughed as I heard them scream. I am Breschau, ''and this is my punishment''.\ |
| 58 | '''Lucifer:''' You must go.\ |
| 59 | '''Breschau:''' Did you not hear me, fiend? I have killed -\ |
| 60 | '''Lucifer:''' I ''heard''. You killed a number of people who by now would have been long-since dead anyway. So ''what''? You've been chained to this slab for eleven hundred years. Haven't you tortured yourself enough? [...] But no-one today remembers Breschau. ''No-one.'' I doubt one living mortal in a hundred thousand could even point to where Livonia ''used'' to be, on a map.[[note]][[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livonia It lay]] where Estonia is today, for the curious.[[/note]] The world has ''forgotten'' you. Enough. Go. |
| 61 | ** The Franchise/DCUniverse Purgatory is shown as a place of crushing ennui; ironically several inhabitants earned their way upwards by kicking the ass of Purgatory's guards in a slightly misguided attempt to do good. |
| 62 | *** There is also a minor form of DC Purgatory in ''Ragman''. The evil men Ragman kill get to work off their sins by literally lending their strength to the hero and absorbing his injuries. A broken knee goes away by having some of the souls get injured knees. You work hard enough helping Ragman out/taking his owies, you get to go to Heaven. |
| 63 | ** It should be noted that most ''Vertigo'' stories are not considered canonical for the Franchise/DCUniverse. The recent miniseries ''Reign In Hell'' shows a version of Hell different from the above stories: it turns out Purgatory's actually a subsection of Hell as a whole. But... either you work out your debt and head upstairs to Heaven, or you can take Door Number Two... [[spoiler:Hell. You can renounce salvation, leave Purgatory and go to Hell. This is actually part of a much larger question that is answered at the end, answering, exactly, what is the (rather chilling) Unspoken Principle of Purgatory:]] |
| 64 | -->'''Unspoken Principle''': [[spoiler:You can leave whenever you want.]] |
| 65 | * When the hero of ''ComicBook/TheSavageDragon'' meets God, He claims that whatever one believes is what happens: |
| 66 | -->'''Dragon:''' You mean - if I firmly believed that I'd spend the rest of eternity making mad, passionate love to a bevy of leggy super-models - I'd get that?\ |
| 67 | '''God:''' Yes. |
| 68 | * In classic ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'', Hell includes a desert of the dead, overseen by the HorsemenOfTheApocalypse. Those who walk through it can see the city of Hate in the distance but never get any closer. As they fall into despair, they gradually turn into [[DemBones skeletons]] and simply kneel down, facing the city they will never reach, with nothing but their thoughts for all eternity. |
| 69 | * In his comic book ''ComicBook/SwampThing'', Creator/AlanMoore explained (decreed?) that the afterlife of the DC universe depends entirely on what the dead expect will happen, be it Heaven, Hell, or reincarnation. It is also possible to trap an innocent in Hell by convincing them that you have the power to do so. This concept has been used in other [[Franchise/TheDCU DC]] and Creator/VertigoComics, such as ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Lucifer}}'' and ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989''. However, it's also been ignored on occasion due to story requirements or editorial lapses. |
| 70 | ** Creator/PhilFoglio's '90s {{Revival}} of ''ComicBook/StanleyAndHisMonster'' plays with this when Stanley is forced to [[ToHellAndBack storm the gates of hell]] to rescue his friend, the Monster of the title. Stanley is an innocent little kid whose knowledge of Hell comes entirely from Saturday morning cartoons and the Monster's wildly inaccurate stories -- so as soon as Stanley enters, Hell becomes cute, brightly-colored, and harmless, with the demons forced to behave as if they were stupid and easily-outwitted. [[CaptainErsatz John Constantine clone]] Ambrose Bierce explains this trope (but not to Stanley, since [[AchievementsInIgnorance it only works because Stanley doesn't know any better]]). |
| 71 | ** This idea was thrown out for ''Film/Constantine2005'', the (very loose) film adaptation of ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'', and replaced with a more conventional system based on Catholicism. |
| 72 | * In Issue #36 of ''ComicBook/TarotWitchOfTheBlackRose'', Jon ventures into a hole to a vast Hell Dimension that Crypt Chick was taken too. After finding Crypt Chick and intending on escaping, he calls out to the thousands of souls trapped there and tells them that he will bring them along if they choose. They all call out to him and are suddenly free of their imprisonment, their souls rising into the heavens as the sun rises. |
| 73 | * Roberta Gregory's ''WingingIt'' shows the main character, Lupe, confronting a horrifically wounded Jesus on a crucifix, who later turns into Satan. Meanwhile, a small child is running toward a beatific "Deezus!" and a Latina woman is being embraced by the Virgin Mary. |
| 74 | * In ''ComicBook/WeaponX2017'', while on a trip to Hell to stop William Stryker from resurrecting himself, Sabertooth is outraged that Stryker lives in a ''castle'' in Hell instead of being tortured. [[SatanicArchetype Marduk Kurios]] tells him that Stryker tortures ''himself'': he is so consumed by his hatred of mutants that he is incapable of ''enjoying'' his life of luxury in Hell and instead just mopes and drones on and on about what the mutants [[ItsAllAboutMe did to him]] until he [[DeathIsCheap comes back to life]] and [[ComicBookDeath later dies]] so the cycle can start all over again. Kurios doesn't even have to ''do'' anything to him. |
| 75 | [[/folder]] |
| 76 | |
| 77 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 78 | * ''Fanfic/{{The Cosmos|MiraculousLadybug}}'': Nino ends up in a waking version of this once the titular group returns. Unlike most of his classmates, he recognizes that Lila is a ManipulativeBitch, but isn't willing to stand up to her or call her out. His unwillingness to act means that he's ForcedToWatch as she digs her claws deeper into his friends, well aware that karma is coming for them all, but too scared to speak up and risk her wrath. |
| 79 | * ''Fanfic/EarthAndSky'': Diamond Tiara eventually winds up trapped in her own nightmares, riddled with guilt and remorse. Upon seeing this, Princess Luna decides that the SpoiledBrat may finally be learning her lesson, leading to the two having a conversation about forgiveness before the princess frees her with a stern warning. |
| 80 | * ''Fanfic/{{Equestrylvania}}'': According to Sypha, this is the ''only'' kind of Hell. As a demonstration, she forces Twilight to relieve the moment where she found [[spoiler:the dead foals in the hospital]], which morphs into Twilight's fears and doubts plaguing her. All part of her TrainingFromHell to help her stand up to Dracula's stronger minions. |
| 81 | * ''Fanfic/ForHisOwnSake'': A RunningTheme is that the Hinata Girls tend to be [[HisOwnWorstEnemy their own worst enemies]]; while they could work on their respective issues and improve their lots in life, Granny Hina has been enabling them to avoid doing so through her coddling. Over the course of the story, some of the girls realize this; [[ShrinkingViolet Shinobu]], for instance, learns how to [[GrewASpine stand up for herself]]. Others, like Naru and Motoko, double down and refuse to even ''consider'' changing their ways, which causes problems as their {{Karma Houdini Warrant|y}}ies start running out. |
| 82 | * ''WebAnimation/{{HFIL}}'' is the punishment of the ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'' universe's main villains - and it, surprisingly, is not a FireAndBrimstoneHell. It's a ''cul-de-sac''; the ''punishment'' is that you're surrounded by the most [[CardCarryingVillain evil]], [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]], and [[{{Jerkass}} jerkish]], [[InsistentTerminology vil - sorry, morally compromised malefactors]] in the universe (like you if you are judged as being evil enough to be sent there). |
| 83 | * ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': While Chloe doesn't recognize it right away, this is one of the reasons why she ended up on the Infinity Train. While her school life ''was'' legitimately hellish thanks to Sara, Yeardley and most of her classmates [[GangOfBullies bullying her]], and her father's decision to make her work at his lab after school in hopes of protecting her was NotQuiteTheRightThing, Chloe was the one who turned her time there into a self-inflicted hell. She didn't trust any of her father's coworkers, rejected all of Ash and Goh's efforts to invite her along on their adventures, and refused to tell her parents how unhappy she was, assuming they'd just ignore her. |
| 84 | * ''[[Fanfic/TheLamentSeriesChaoticNeutral The Lament Series]]'' runs on the RealityWarpingIsNotAToy version of this. Each story focuses on somebody making a Wish that retcons reality, only to find that the new world they've created is effectively their own personalized hell. |
| 85 | ** Gabriel terrorized the city as Hawk Moth in hopes of saving Emilie from her coma. To this end, he was more than happy to sacrifice his ''son's'' happiness as well. In the new world, Emilie's Miraculous was not damaged, and she [[AdaptationalHeroism serves as one of Paris's protectors]], fighting against its ''own'' version of Hawk Moth... and their son, who was akumatized into Chat Blanc thanks to his father's deadly combination of smothering control and ParentalNeglect. |
| 86 | ** Chloe [[BelievingTheirOwnLies convinced herself]] that Marinette was SecretlySelfish, looking down upon others just as much as ''she'' did. Her Wish had them switching roles, with Chloe ''expecting'' to become just as beloved as Marinette while the other girl was despised for being the Mayor's SpoiledBrat daughter. Instead, Marinette retains her kindness and compassion, proving naturally popular with their peers while Chloe is scorned for her petty bullying, [[KarmaHoudiniWarranty no longer shielded from the consequences of her actions]] by her father's connections. |
| 87 | * ''Fanfic/{{Memoirs}}'': Inu-papa deliberately creates one for himself; in order to force his feral side to develop an aversion to killing humans, he gives himself a [[WeaksauceWeakness weakness]] to human blood. |
| 88 | * ''Fanfic/MonsterInTheMountain'': Asriel has made himself utterly miserable. In order to secure the [[spoiler:power and form]] that he desired, he [[spoiler:betrayed Frisk and all of the monsters]], effectively losing everyone who could have cared about him and provided the affection he ''also'' desperately craves. And when Frisk discovers this, he refuses to [[spoiler:give up the souls he'd stolen]], losing both Frisk and [[spoiler:the child he'd just conceived with them]]. |
| 89 | * [[PlayingWithATrope Played With]] in the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries''. Heaven and Hell decidedly do ''not'' run on subjective morality: be a good person you get to Heaven, be somewhere in the middle you'll remain in Limbo until you figure out which way you'll go, be a bad person you go to Hell, simple as that. However, it's implied the ''kind'' of Heaven one experiences ''is'' based on their personal view of paradise, though they are capable of interacting freely with others. On the other hand, Hell has at times been shown to involve both [[IronicHell karmic punishment]] and punishment by other 'inmates'. The ''biggest'' point, however, is that ultimately it's surprisingly easy to escape Hell, but few ever figure it out. The only thing required to escape Hell is genuinely accepting that one did evil and truly repenting for their deeds... but most people who end up in Hell end up there because [[NeverMyFault they refuse to accept they wronged others and did evil]] even when the Gods show them the damage they caused. |
| 90 | * In ''Fanfic/{{Recommencer|MiraculousLadybug}}'', every Miraculous has a MentalWorld that their bearers can access if they become attuned enough to it. However, this inner world [[FisherKing reflects the mind and karma]] of the bearer. In Hawkmoth's case, because he's abused the Miraculi, terrorized Paris, and [[spoiler:murdered another bearer for their Miraculous]], his inner world has become a complete hellscape -- and every night, the Brooch drags him in, with his former mentor berating him for his crimes and reminding him that he's BeyondRedemption. |
| 91 | * ''Fanfic/{{Your Wish is my Command|MiraculousLadybug}}'': Lila Wishes to swap places with Adrien, becoming the daughter of Gabriel Agreste. Her attempts to continue her usual tactics [[HoistByHisOwnPetard blow up in her face]]; the more she attempts to manipulate things in her favor, the deeper the hole she digs for herself. |
| 92 | [[/folder]] |
| 93 | |
| 94 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 95 | * ''WesternAnimation/DCShowcaseConstantineTheHouseOfMystery'': ComicBook/TheSpectre sentences John Constantine to the House of Mystery for creating another Flashpoint. While at first he sees himself as living there with his friends, married to Zatanna with two children, things quickly become horrific when they all morph into demons and kill him, only for Constantine to be resurrected for the whole process to begin again. After ''centuries'' experiencing TheManyDeathsOfYou he escapes and gives Spectre a WhatTheHellHero, only to be told that the House was meant to be a LotusEaterMachine where Constantine could live forever with those he loved, but his guilt and self-loathing made it otherwise. |
| 96 | * The movie ''Anime/NightOnTheGalacticRailroad'' deals with a vision of the afterlife which seems at least partly based on where people believe they should go. One of the protagonists has a ticket to "the one True Heaven" (which isn't reached until the very end of the film). However, earlier in the film, a bunch of Christian Titanic victims arrive on the train, which lets them off at "the Southern Cross", a pious - and apparently ersatz - "Christian" version of heaven filled with robed figures making their way towards a giant, glowing cross. |
| 97 | * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverseTheMovie'': The antagonist, [[spoiler:Spinel]], wants {{revenge}} because she [[spoiler:was abandoned for 6,000 years by [[PosthumousCharacter Pink Diamond]] in her garden when Pink left to work on what ended up being her only colony, Earth. The humiliating part, however, is that there was ''nothing'' physically keeping Spinel in the garden, [[AndIMustScream standing perfectly still]] in one spot. She was just trying to do what Pink told her to do as perfectly as possible. On top of wasting a maddeningly-long length of her life, she ends up feeling like a complete idiot when she finds out that Pink is gone for good and abandoned her]]. |
| 98 | [[/folder]] |
| 99 | |
| 100 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 101 | * ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney'' has a sequence where the title pair are sent to a corridor full of doors, each of which leads to various "own personal Hells". Such torments include Bill having to deal with his creepy grandmother, Ted being berated by the Easter Bunny for stealing some of his brother's candy as a child, and both being subjected to doing infinity push-ups by the Army colonel who wants to recruit them.\ |
| 102 | What makes it especially self-inflicted is that each punishment is behind a door, and ''the doors are unlocked''. Apparently, you can flee your punishment at any time. However, when they refuse to choose a punishment, ''all the punishments storm out of the doors at once''. The idea seems to be that you either choose your damnation or be subjected to them all. |
| 103 | * ''Film/CruelAndUnusual'': The authorities in the afterlife seem to imply it is this, and that if the condemned accept their sins they can move on. [[spoiler:However, only Doris is seen to do this, solely because Edgar took her place.]] |
| 104 | * In the backstory of ''Film/{{Dogma}}'', shown in a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9qAqwIW704 deleted scene]], Hell was originally created as a simple prison for fallen angels, but when human souls started to arrive, their [[GuiltComplex guilt-ridden]] demands for punishment made it much, much worse. |
| 105 | * A subversion of this trope (involving a PosthumousCharacter) is the framing device of ''Film/HeavenCanWait1943''. |
| 106 | * This is part of the TwistEnding in ''Film/HellraiserInferno''. As Pinhead explains, Joseph has built his own Hell by hurting and abusing everyone around him. He'll be stuck in an [[GroundhogDayLoop endless loop]] where he hunts his own dark side and has to watch his friends and family be butchered in front of him. |
| 107 | * ''Film/LordOfWar:'' Because of the things he's done, Yuri Orlov has lost his brother, had his wife and son walk out on him, and his parents disown him. As Agent Valentine says to him: |
| 108 | -->"I would tell you to go to hell... but I think you're already there." |
| 109 | * This is the explanation for his predicament given to the protagonist of ''Film/OpenYourEyes'', and its remake ''Film/VanillaSky''. |
| 110 | * ''Film/ThePlatform'' is an allegory for this. The movie depicts a prison made of several hundred cells with a food-laden platform passing through each of them every day. There's enough food for everyone, and prisoners are free to eat all they want, but they only have a small time window to do so and cannot keep any of the food after the platform moves on. So each day the first (or top) cells gorge themselves, the middle ones scrounge on leftovers, and the bottom ones are left with nothing and are driven to starvation, cannibalism or suicide. The catch is that every month prisoners are shuffled between cells. So those who'd left their prison-mates starve by refusing to ration food now suffer from the same injustice, those who'd spent time below and came to vehemently hate the selfish "abovers" relish their brief elevated (literally) position to stuff their faces and shit (some times literally) on the despised "belowers", and the vicious cycle continues. |
| 111 | * ''Film/TheRapture'': Sharon refuses to enter heaven, even if she can see her daughter and husband again, remaining in an empty desert place by herself forever, because she refuses to accept God. |
| 112 | * ''Film/WhatDreamsMayCome'': Those who [[DrivenToSuicide commit suicide]] end up in Hell because they're still dealing with whatever pain caused them to take their own lives and cannot move on. Annie Nielsen kills herself due to the grief of losing her children and husband in a short timeframe. Her Hell is being alone in a ruined version of her home with amnesia that means she doesn't recognize her husband even when he's standing in front of her. |
| 113 | [[/folder]] |
| 114 | |
| 115 | [[folder:Folklore]] |
| 116 | * In a Sufi parable a king once meets a dervish (a wandering monk) and asks him about where he's been to. "To Hell," - answers the dervish, - "I needed to light my smoke pipe, so I decided to go and ask them for some fire." "So," - says the king, - "any luck?" "Nope," - answers the dervish, - "they didn't have any. They said everybody brings their own." |
| 117 | * In hell, they say, you only have a tremendous spoon with which to feed yourself. But it's too long to ever reach your own mouth. And, yet, in Heaven, it's the same. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_long_spoons Solution here]]. |
| 118 | [[/folder]] |
| 119 | |
| 120 | [[folder:Jokes]] |
| 121 | * There's a joke where a man, for some reason or another, dies and goes to Hell. He's given the grand tour by Lucifer, and much to his surprise finds it to be a rather pleasant place. Then as the tour wraps up, they come upon a fire-and-brimstone lake where demons prod naked souls with pitchforks. "What is that?" the man asks. "Don't worry about it," Lucifer replies. "We built that for the [Insert targeted group here]. They ''insisted'' on it!" |
| 122 | * There is an "inspirational story" about the idea of a self-inflicted hell. It goes as thus - |
| 123 | -->A man spoke with the Lord about heaven and hell. The Lord said to the man, "Come, I will show you hell." |
| 124 | |
| 125 | -->They entered a room where a group of people sat around a huge pot of stew. Everyone was famished, desperate and starving. Each had a spoon strapped to their arm that reached the pot, but each spoon had a handle so much longer than their own arm that it could not be used to get the stew into their own mouths. The suffering was terrible. |
| 126 | |
| 127 | -->"Come, now I will show you heaven," the Lord said after a while. They entered another room, identical to the first -- the pot of stew, the group of people, the same long-handled spoons. But there everyone was happy and well-nourished. "I don't understand," said the man. "Why are they happy here when they were miserable in the other room and everything was the same?" |
| 128 | |
| 129 | -->The Lord smiled, "Ah, it is simple," he said. "Here they have learned to feed each other." |
| 130 | ** There's also a version with chopsticks. Both the people in heaven and the people in hell are granted one chopstick. Those in hell are not charitable and do not trust those around them and so spend all their time trying to figure out how to eat with one and failing. Those in heaven are willing to share. |
| 131 | * A whole subgenre of jokes among modern-day Pagans, where a Pagan dies and finds himself before Saint Peter, who promptly sends them along to the Summer Lands (the Neo-Pagan version of Heaven); along the way the Pagan meets Fundamentalists in some combination of this and IronicHell. |
| 132 | * There's a joke where a man dies, and finds himself at [[FluffyCloudHeaven the Pearly Gates]]. St. Peter asks him, "What religion are you?" and the man answers. He is directed to a room but told to be quiet when passing by a particular other room. Several more people go through this. Finally, one person asks why they have to be quiet when passing by that particular room. St. Peter explains that "Well, you see, that's where [insert targeted group here] are, and they think they're the only ones here. We wouldn't want to spoil that for them, now would we?" |
| 133 | * A man dies and goes to Heaven and it is great in every possible way. Later he inquires to take a peek at Hell. What he sees confuses him: it is the same thing as Heaven but everybody is absolutely miserable. He asks why. "They can't stop dwelling over how much better Heaven must be." |
| 134 | [[/folder]] |
| 135 | |
| 136 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 137 | !!By Author: |
| 138 | * Creator/CSLewis: |
| 139 | ** In the novel ''Literature/TheGreatDivorce'', there's actually bus service from Hell (which in this story is just a drab and miserable city separated from God) to the outskirts of Heaven, and the damned are under no obligation to actually ''return''. The problem is that until they give up the sins they were damned for (which most are unwilling to do), they are MadeOfPlasticine compared to Heaven and ''everything'', including blades of grass, goes right through them. |
| 140 | --->There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "''Thy'' will be done." All that are in Hell choose it. |
| 141 | ** Also by Creator/CSLewis: the fate of the FlatEarthAtheist dwarfs in ''Literature/TheLastBattle''. Even in [[{{Heaven}} Aslan's country]], they delude themselves into thinking that it's still the dark stable they were thrown into. Aslan demonstrates the depths of their [[IRejectYourReality rejection of reality]] by conjuring up a feast for them- when they eat it, they convince themselves that the sumptuous food is lettuce, straw, and dirty water -- the sort of things one would find in a stable. |
| 142 | ** ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters'' are written from the perspective of the titular demon, who has the self-awareness to know that he and his colleagues reside in Hell by their own choice. He explicitly acknowledges (as Creator/JohnMilton did) that Satan himself could return to Heaven in an instant if he gave up his pride and apologized, but Screwtape supports his adamant refusal to do this. He even admits that Hell does not ''need'' to be a place of suffering and torment, but he emphatically insists that it ''should'' be. |
| 143 | * Creator/RobertAHeinlein: |
| 144 | ** ''Literature/JobAComedyOfJustice'' has a variant, in that whatever belief structure you believe in is the one you get to experience the afterlife for. So if you're Christian, you'll get heaven/hell/purgatory, if you're Hindu you'll get reincarnated. The Christian main character finds this out the hard way when he dies and goes to heaven but his wife is not there. So he assumes she's in hell, and only when he's trapped in Hell does anyone explain this to him. She's in Valhalla, and since he didn't believe in Valhalla, he can't get there. |
| 145 | ** Heinlein did this before, in the short story ''Literature/{{Elsewhen}}'' in which he flatly stated that ''no human being has the capacity to believe in their own death'', so when a person dies, they get whatever afterlife they expect they will find. If they were very religious, they go to a form of heaven where they subsist with God, etc. But nobody ever ceases to exist because it's impossible to believe in annihilation. |
| 146 | |
| 147 | !!By Series: |
| 148 | * ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'': At the start, Arthur, Ford, Trillian, and Random have -- from their own perspectives -- spent several decades in a personal Heaven courtesy of the ''Guide'' Mk II. Arthur relaxes on a beach with all the tea he wants. Ford spends time at a resort where he has all the parties, {{gargle blaster}}s and sex he wants while his health and chin steadily improve. Random unites Earth and is elected President of the Galaxy. Trillian gets to become the most respected journalist in the galaxy, but it ends up being Hell for her. |
| 149 | * ''Literature/ColdfireTrilogy'': |
| 150 | ** Belief shapes reality. Hell only exists because the priests told their followers that it did. That is the precise reason why the founder of the religion deliberately did ''not'' have any mention of Hell in his original writings: To make it not exist. [[spoiler:When the religion he created turned against him, he made a DealWithTheDevil (which involved sacrificing his wife, two of his children, and his humanity) to escape the hell his former followers created for him.]] |
| 151 | ** A slightly less literal form of this was also a plot point in the second book. Tarrant made a deal for immortality in no small part because he was curious to see if his centuries-long experiment to create God would work or not. It did, but due to the deal he made for immortality, he can never look upon Him. And he can never repent because he can never truly be sorry that he got to know the truth rather than dying ignorant. So a metaphorical -- as well as a literal -- SelfInflictedHell. |
| 152 | * In the {{Creepypasta}} ''Literature/TheDevilGame'', if you let the time run out, the Devil will trap you inside a mirror, where you'll be tormented by any horrible thing your mind can come up with. If you're not particularly imaginative, that's nothing to worry about. If you're the type of person to browse a website filled with horror stories, on the other hand... |
| 153 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The books exploit and subvert this concept in all kinds of ways, including (in ''Literature/InterestingTimes'') a part-time barbarian qualifying for a [[WarriorHeaven Valhalla equivalent]] because he sort of half-believed in his colleagues' beliefs and then started fully believing it just before he died, and a man who did not believe in ghosts being pursued through the afterlife by his victims because ''they believe in him''. |
| 154 | ** Many who hit the afterlife are confronted with a long desert to cross; they are told by [[DontFearTheReaper Death]] that their eternal reward is on the other side. This mentally stuns a few; they end up sitting in the sand, tormented. Unless they're golems, in which case they may consider standing around in the desert with no more duties to perform to ''be'' Heaven; when a particularly ancient golem is blown to pieces in ''Going Postal'', having an absence of tasks was eternal reward enough. |
| 155 | ** In ''Literature/SmallGods'' Brutha the Prophet is the only one who sees the way out of the desert. When he dies and Death tells him judgment awaits him on the end of the desert, he says "Which end?" In response, Death grins. |
| 156 | ** Discworld is actually almost a subversion of this trope. Since you only go to Hell if you really, deeply believe you ''deserve'' you go to Hell, Hell is mostly populated by rather nice people -- because nobody who is genuinely, unapologetically evil (such as sociopaths) would believe that he deserves to be punished for all eternity. Although thankfully the torments of Hell are pretty harmless a lot of the time because people don't actually have to feel pain unless they're really trying to. Also, the demons are mostly AffablyEvil. |
| 157 | *** It's also stated that because you must think you belong in hell to go there, you cannot go if you aren't even aware there is such a place. "This is why it's vitally important to shoot missionaries on sight." |
| 158 | ** On the other hand, nihilists (some of which can be genuinely evil) suffer greatly after death in ''Discworld'', which does have real gods, pantheons, and afterlifes. If you don't believe anything, then you don't know where you belong after death, so you have to wait until you figure it out... and if you don't figure it out, then you'll be waiting [[YearInsideHourOutside a very long time]]... |
| 159 | ** And ''[[UniverseCompendium The Discworld Companion]]'' [[AllThereInTheManual clarifies]] that the soul goes where it thinks it belongs "shorn of all self-deception". [[note]]When you die the first thing you lose is your life. The second is your illusions -- ''Literature/{{Pyramids}}''.[[/note]] |
| 160 | ** [[TheGrimReaper Death]] himself seems often bound to deliver people to the afterlife they believe in... but either he or the cosmic rules are not above giving their own interpretation in case of an evildoer thinking this gives him a "get out of jail free" card. See for example the fate of [[Literature/TheTruth Mr. Pin]]. |
| 161 | * ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': Although the rest of the ''Inferno'' delights in IronicHell, Dante demonstrates how Satan, at the center of Hell in its deepest circle, is in the worst self-inflicted Hell of all: his six wings flap constantly, freezing the lake around him and leaving him stuck fast in the ice. Why does he keep flapping his wings? Because he wants to return to Heaven. Where did the water of the frozen lake come from? They are a mixture of the water flowing down from the other four rivers and Satan's ''tears,'' as he is weeping, having separated himself from the source of all his now-lost beauty and power. |
| 162 | * Creator/StephenKing's short story "[[Literature/EverythingsEventual That Feeling You Can Only Say What It Is In French]]" implies that the main character is in Purgatory because she has refused to acknowledge, let alone resolve, the guilt she feels over [[spoiler:aborting her only child]]. |
| 163 | * ''The Greatest Torment'': Invoked, and subverted, by the false Swedenborg, written in (1873) -- the real Swedenborg is documented below in Other: |
| 164 | -->''Demons told me that there is a hell for the sentimental and pedantic ones. [[OntologicalMystery They are abandoned in an endless palace that is emptier than fuller, and windowless. The Condemned run through it as if they were searching for something]] and [[ClicheStorm you already know the rest]]: After a while they start to say that'' [[{{Wangst}} the greatest torment is not to participate in the vision of God, that the moral pain is more alive than the physical pain, etc]]. '' [[AnAesop Then the demons threw them into the sea of fire, where no one ever will get them out]].'' |
| 165 | * ''Literature/HarryPotter'''s Voldemort, as Creator/JKRowling indicates that [[spoiler:he's stuck as a mutilated, dismembered soul (because of the way he used murder to split his soul) in a sort of limbo. He has, in effect, created his own hell. His only recourse to leave and heal himself is to show genuine remorse, suggesting this is not necessarily a permanent state.]] |
| 166 | ** It is also implied that showing true remorse would actually kill Voldemort. Given his mortal fear (no pun intended) of death, he might PREFER this fate. |
| 167 | --->'''Harry''': What is that, [[spoiler:Professor]]?\ |
| 168 | '''[[spoiler:Dumbledore]]''': Something that is beyond either of our help. |
| 169 | * In Ted Chiang's "Hell is the Absence of God", Hell is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin -- it doesn't contain any torments; it's just an eternity of being cut off from God's attention. For non-religious people who don't really care about God, it's a bigger deal that they don't get to spend eternity with any of their loved ones who went to Heaven. |
| 170 | * In Kelley Armstrong's novel ''[[Literature/WomenOfTheOtherworld Haunted]]'', Eve meets Lizzie Borden (long story) in a literal self-inflicted hell. Lizzie punishes herself by murdering illusions of her parents over and over for eternity. |
| 171 | -->Her cheek twitched, eyes filling with genuine guilt and remorse, the kind Amanda Sullivan couldn't imagine, much less feel.\ |
| 172 | "So this is your punishment, then," I said, my voice softer.\ |
| 173 | "Punishment?" A confused glance my way. "This is what I deserve."\ |
| 174 | "A hell of her own making," Kristof murmured. I looked up at him. "I think this is her own doing," he said. "She's created her own hell and trapped herself in it. No need for anyone to punish her. She does it herself." |
| 175 | * Creator/PiersAnthony's ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'': |
| 176 | ** ''Literature/OnAPaleHorse'' (about the incarnation of Death) features this for atheists. The main character (essentially TheGrimReaper) meets a blind atheist who has committed suicide and is slowly dying. Despite Death explaining that his job is to take souls to Heaven or Hell (and suicide is a big sin...), the atheist doesn't believe in an afterlife. When he dies, Death tries to take his soul, but it disintegrates. Similarly, it's implied that the people who believe in one of the non-Abrahamic religions (such as Hinduism) end up in their religion's afterlife ([[{{reincarnation}} or equivalent]]); only people who believe that Hell ''exists'' can end up there, but what you believe you ''deserve'' has little or no effect on your afterlife. |
| 177 | ** Later, in ''Literature/ForLoveOfEvil'' it's revealed that {{Satan}} (the Incarnation of Evil)'s primary power is a sham: he can't really obliterate demons or confine souls to a particular part of Hell unless they believe he can. Only a handful of people, most of them former Incarnations, know the secret (which he has to learn to keep the job), largely because revealing the deception would create chaos. |
| 178 | * ''Literature/InfernoLarryNivenAndJerryPournelle'': Downplayed. Hell is very much the Dantean one, with fire, boiling pitch, sheer rock walls, and demons with pointy implements to keep the damned in line. However, a major factor keeping the damned in their condition is their own refusal to help themselves. Throughout both books, the characters on pilgrimage offer others the chance to go with them and are rebuffed. The damned would rather just wallow in self-pity, or rage against God and the universe and fate; many others just can't let go of whatever personal issues landed them in Hell in the first place and endlessly pursue pointless feuds with one another or chase after delusions of fame or wealth, or would just rather alleviate their misery by hurting one another. The first necessary step to leaving the Pit is to process your issues, let go of them, and take that first step on a long journey -- but for many, that is too hard, too uncomfortable, and too intimidating, and they refuse to do so. |
| 179 | * Creator/IsaacAsimov's short story "Literature/TheLastTrump" has everyone resurrected on Earth while everything else -- buildings, clothing, machinery, possessions -- crumbles and all the landscape flattens out, to leave the damned with nothing but each other and their own thoughts for eternity. |
| 180 | * In ''Literature/TheMasterAndMargarita'', the theory that everyone gets what they believe is listed by Woland ({{Satan}}) among possible afterlife theories. It is unclear from the novel if this theory is always true; it is shown, however, that the afterlife does exist, but Woland ensures that one atheistic character gets exactly what he believed in: nothing. |
| 181 | ** The outcome may be based on deeds. [[spoiler:It is explicitly stated that Margarita gets her eternal peaceful being with Master away from everything for her love. Neither Master nor Margarita believed in that outcome, called ''not deserving the Light, but deserving the peace''. One can argue, though, that the lack of belief on their part was an important part of not deserving the Light. Behemoth the Cat also had the afterlife fate that he didn't expect.]] |
| 182 | %%* ''Literature/TheNightsDawnTrilogy'' by Creator/PeterFHamilton. |
| 183 | * The short story ''Other People'' by Creator/NeilGaiman had a twist on this - [[spoiler: his torment was ''literally'' self-inflicted: due to the [[StableTimeLoop fluid nature of time]] in Hell, the demon torturing him is himself after enduring millennia of torture.]] As the worst part of the torture is being forced to understand every negative thought and action of his life and their consequences, it seems both aspects are part of his penance. |
| 184 | ** A slight upshot being that [[spoiler: the "demon" vanishes in the end, implying that once a damned soul fully and completely comes to grips with who they are and what they've done in life they will be allowed to move on, turning this hell into a particularly prolonged and painful Purgatory more than a true Hell.]] |
| 185 | * ''Literature/ParadiseLost'' points this out many times. At the end of the War in Heaven, Satan and his followers retreat from the Son and throw ''themselves'' into Hell. While Hell is a physical location, Satan escapes it pretty easily and pontificates the nature of his damnation. He acknowledges that he could seek forgiveness and receive it, but concludes that he is too prideful to submit to God again, so he will stay damned. As the page quote suggests, Satan realizes that his damnation is his own fault. |
| 186 | * An unusually literal (though non-religious) variant occurs in Creator/GregEgan's ''Literature/PermutationCity'', where many people have been uploaded into a sort of "virtual afterlife" which they can design to their own liking. One character is shown to have quite deliberately created a hell that consists of forcing himself to endlessly relive the event for which he's punishing himself. |
| 187 | * In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''[[Literature/ProsperosDaughter Prospero Regained]]'', Hell is this. |
| 188 | * In the ''Literature/RiverOfDancingGods'' stories, there is an unusual subversion. People get what they expect, but whether it is a reward or a punishment is determined by what kind of a person they are. A bad person who believes they will go to a traditional Heaven will discover just how horrible it can be to sit on a cloud and play a harp for eternity, while a good person who believes they will go to Hell discovers that Hell may be filled with sinners and fire, but it will be an enjoyable Hell full of sinners and fire. |
| 189 | * The metaphysical ''Seth'' books by Jane Roberts purport to have been dictated by a spiritual being. They state that for some people, the Afterlife BEGINS with an [[TheTreacheryOfImages indistinguishable-from-reality ILLUSION]]. A soul may experience what they BELIEVE they will experience, whether some form of Heaven, Hell, or whatever. Eventually, the individual will find their way, or be led by others, to the [[BrokenMasquerade TRUE Afterlife]]. |
| 190 | * In the SF novel ''Waiting For The Galactic Bus'', aliens accidentally cause the evolution of humanity and then have to deal with their spirits when they die. One opens up Heaven, AKA "Topside", and the other runs Hell, "Below Stairs." Everyone who turns up Below Stairs seems to expect torture, so he provides it, but the EXIT signs are brightly lit and the rest of the place is a pretty decent place to live. |
| 191 | ** Ironically, this also pops up in Topside: A Palestinian soldier killed by Israeli snipers turned up demanding his 72 virgins. He gets them[[labelnote:*]]Well, one - an ex-prostitute who volunteered for the task.[[/labelnote]]... ends up bored after about an hour and breaks down in tears of despair. After a discussion with the SufficientlyAdvancedAliens who built the place, he mentions his love of baking and is given a much happier afterlife as the guardian spirit of a bakery. |
| 192 | [[/folder]] |
| 193 | |
| 194 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 195 | * In ''Series/TheCollector'', a robotocist tries to evade death and eternal damnation by putting her mind in an immortal robot body. But the robot malfunctions and is incapable of movement but is still fully conscious. The devil pays the electricity bills for the next millennium and congratulates her for being his first client to literally devise their own personal hell. |
| 196 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'' provides a near-uber-example of this trope in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent "Heaven Sent"]]. After the tragic death of his companion, [[spoiler:Clara Oswald]], the grieving Twelfth Doctor is transported into what is essentially a massive torture chamber [[spoiler:created by the Time Lords]] which tries to force him to reveal what he knows about a prophecy. He is pursued by a mysterious creature that [[spoiler:injects an acid of some sort into his face that slowly vaporizes the Doctor into a skeleton, causing the Doctor to regain his memories while he painfully crawls to a cloning chamber to create a clone of himself with a fragment of his memories, which helps him get through the trial only to discover that the final obstacle is a giant wall of hyper-durable nanocrystals, which he punches with his bare fists for a few seconds as the creature injects him from behind, in a cycle that lasts for 4 1/2 ''billion'' years, before the Doctor is finally able to escape after the collective effort of all his punches carves through an over 12-feet ''thick'' wall that is literally harder than diamond]]. In the next episode, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]], we learn [[spoiler:he could have left at any time by giving his captors the information they wanted, but chose to stay within this personal hell for so long in the hopes that he might be able to save Clara's life. When Clara — who he does manage to extract from time a moment before her death — learns of this, she is horrified.]] AllThereInTheManual: the published script for part 2, "Hell Bent", contains a line of dialogue cut from the episode that directly refers to the Doctor as having been in hell. "Heaven Sent", meanwhile, does have a televised scene in which the Doctor wonder if he is in hell, which he just dismisses as "Heaven for bad people." |
| 197 | * This idea gives the title for a ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' episode, though the implication seems to be that these afterlives are more positive than hellish. |
| 198 | -->'''Nurse''': If... we die, will I be with my daughter?\ |
| 199 | '''Stark''': Different beliefs, different destinations... I cannot tell before the end. |
| 200 | * ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' eventually reveals that at least some parts of the Bad Place are like this: [[spoiler:specifically, the Good Place in which the main characters themselves are is actually an IronicHell designed to have them unknowingly psychologically torture each other due to their clashing personalities. To the architect's frustration, however, the subjects keep figuring the deception out which ruins the entire point and forces him to wipe their memories and reset everything; ultimately the trope is subverted because despite the clash of personalities the four ultimately bond and become better people.]] |
| 201 | * ''Series/Lucifer2016'': In this universe, souls in Hell relive their worst sins and/or their consequences over and over for eternity. Lucifer claims he takes absolutely no part in this process: humans drag themselves down and do this to themselves. They can leave if they believe they no longer deserve to be tortured - and Lucifer has never seen ''anyone'' manage it. |
| 202 | -->'''Lucifer:''' And the best part -- the doors aren't locked. You could leave any time. It says something that no one ever does, doesn't it? |
| 203 | ** Lucifer ultimately comes to see this system as unfair when [[spoiler:despite all of Dan's CharacterDevelopment, the latter ''still'' ends up in Hell due to his past as a DirtyCop. In the SeriesFinale, Lucifer willingly returns to Hell to become a therapist and allow the damned to overcome their guilt and reach Heaven.]] |
| 204 | * ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''. When B'Elanna Torres wakes up on the Barge of the Dead she says that Klingon hell is a myth. The ferryman replies that if she truly believed that, she wouldn't be here. |
| 205 | * A version of this is implied in ''Series/{{Supernatural}}''. So far, the only people we know of ending up in Hell are people who choose to go there by making a DealWithTheDevil. And, while they do face horrendous torments at the hands of demons, all (or at least most) demons were originally damned souls as well, who were psychologically broken by the constant torture until they agreed to become torturers as well. The true torment of Hell doesn't seem to be the place itself, but rather the people you're forced to spend eternity with. Having been in Hell himself for 40 years [[spoiler: 10 of those as one of the torturers]], you'd think Dean would know how people end up there, and he tells two people in different episodes that they're going to Hell (a woman who's killed someone and an armed robber) -- neither of them had made deals (specifically in "99 problems" and in "Appointment in Samarra", so this seems to be {{Jossed}}). |
| 206 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' had several of these: [[spoiler: ''The Masks'', ''Nick of Time'', ''A Nice Place to Visit'']] and possibly [[spoiler:''Time Enough at Last'']]...come to think of it, practically the entire series would fall under this one. And in [[spoiler:''Death Ship'']] the ending reveals that the characters are stuck in a GroundhogDayLoop for eternity and don’t even know it because their leader stubbornly refuses to believe that they are already dead, preventing them from moving on. |
| 207 | * ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': Xena and Gabrielle were sent to their own version of Hell, a land called Illusia. It even featured Gabrielle being sacrificed and Xena being crucified (two things that happened in canon). The episode has a lot of Christian iconography as well, and not just the cross. Turns out it's all set up by [[spoiler: Xena's dead son, who wanted the two to get past the whole "your daughter, whom I wanted you to kill 'cause I thought she was the GodOfEvil's DarkMessiah, ''really was that bad'' and killed my son" thing]]. We later find ''him'' in an unfavorable part of TheUnderworld, trapped in a stone forced to watch scenes from the world of the living. Turns out he [[spoiler: chose that fate himself even though he was eligible for the Elysian Fields. He considered that to be more of a LotusEaterMachine, and would rather watch the real world even if he couldn't interact with it.]] |
| 208 | [[/folder]] |
| 209 | |
| 210 | [[folder:Newspaper Comics]] |
| 211 | * ''ComicStrip/ForBetterOrForWorse'': Elly Patterson constantly complains that nobody ever helps her with the chores... then berates anyone who tries, complaining that they're "doing everything wrong". She's passive-aggressive towards her husband, lamenting that he never gets the message while refusing to be straightforward with her complaints, and as much as she dislikes her kids being rowdy, struggles with reinforcing any punishment. Deanna winds up having all of the same issues. |
| 212 | * ''ComicStrip/RoseIsRose'' {{Downplay|ed}}s this: Whenever Rose is irritated with Jimbo, she imagines that she's locked herself inside a Dungeon of Resentment, and has to decide when she's ready to let herself out. |
| 213 | [[/folder]] |
| 214 | |
| 215 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 216 | * ''TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness'': ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'' features the Supernal Realm of Pandaemonium, associated with the Arcana of Mind and Space and appearing very much like a FireAndBrimstoneHell. Why? Well, Space bends at the limits of the Realm, meaning that the inhabitants are stuck within and without much besides their own thoughts. Which inevitably turn towards the more negative impulses... and take solid form. |
| 217 | * In the world of ''TabletopGame/InNomine'', by Steve Jackson Games, a mortal only goes to Hell if they achieve their Fate, the darkest, most selfish possibility for their existence. And it truly has to be self-inflicted -- if a demon (or an angel!) pushes them too hard in that direction, it doesn't count and the soul escapes. |
| 218 | * ''TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness'': |
| 219 | ** In ''TabletopGame/DemonTheFallen'', Hell only serves as a prison for the angels who rebelled against God (human souls have their own misfortunes, chronicled in ''TabletopGame/WraithTheOblivion''). Hell has no obvious tortures; it is, in fact, sensationless. The fallen angels, however, were so driven by rage and pain that they turned and lashed out, both at each other and any human souls that drifted too near; thus they provided their own punishments. |
| 220 | ** As for ''[=WtO=]'', there are several "hells," based on the beliefs of their inhabitants, but the only people there are those who ''think'' they deserve to be there or made deals with dark spirits. They mostly serve as macabre tourist attractions for more savvy wraiths and other supernaturals. Note that the heavens aren't much better and are run like cults. Most people who die -- and wraiths who finish their business without being Obliviated -- will Transcend instead. What that entails is entirely unknown. |
| 221 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' tends to feature a mix between this and IronicHell. Usually, the personality flaws of the Darklords are what makes their domains hell, and any of them can escape at any time- they just have to accept that their [[MoralEventHorizon Act of Ultimate Darkness]] was bad and wrong and that all of their suffering is ''entirely'' their own fault. Of course, as the game notes, if you were the sort of person to do that, you probably wouldn't be a Darklord in the first place. |
| 222 | * The Eldar of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' literally squicked their own Hell into existence. Centuries of murderous hedonism spawned the Chaos God Slaanesh. Slaanesh massacred the Eldar and their gods, then made it so that Slaanesh will claim all Eldar souls upon death. It's not clear what Slaanesh does with the souls, but it's probably not anything pleasant. |
| 223 | [[/folder]] |
| 224 | |
| 225 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 226 | * In ''Theatre/NoExit'', Hell is only hellish for our three protagonists because they're [[AttentionWhore attention whores]] who simply cannot leave the others they're locked in with alone. [[spoiler:And they weren't as locked in as they thought, and could have escaped at any time they wanted. But even when the door straight up pops open at the end, they are held back by their flaws and insecurities, and no one even ''attempts'' to leave.]] |
| 227 | * In the 'Epilogue' of ''Theatre/SaintJoan'', the ghost of Joan meets the ghost of a soldier who was kind to her at her execution. He tells her that he went to Hell after he died, but is given one day off a year because of that act of kindness. It's implied that his fate is an example of this trope; he says that he found Hell "a treat" after fifteen years of active service and that when he had his first day off he was at a loss how to deal with it. He's getting the hang of it now, he says, and "They tell me I can have as many as I like as soon as I want them". |
| 228 | [[/folder]] |
| 229 | |
| 230 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 231 | !!In General: |
| 232 | * Also applies to players of video games as well. For instance, someone who [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome uses only the most powerful weapons and tactics]] throughout the game might complain about how the game is too repetitive. Or a [[StopHavingFunGuys Stop Having Fun Guy]] who uses every glitch and exploit ever discovered in the game to beat the 20-hour campaign in under 5 minutes might complain about how the game was too easy and/or short. Or someone getting tired of spending dozens of hours hunting down every secret for HundredPercentCompletion, even when it's totally optional. |
| 233 | |
| 234 | !!By Series: |
| 235 | * ''VideoGame/Afterlife1996'' is basically a SimulationGame where you built the afterlife (the choices are Heaven, Hell, or both Heaven and Hell at the same time) and have to develop and maintain it; whether or not people came there was dependent on what they believed in life, which you could tweak by, for example, inspiring prophets in the mortal world. A tip; your income rate depends on the death rate depends on the population... so go rack up some lust. There's also elements of the more traditional interpretation of these in many of the Envy punishments, in that they all have a way to succeed above others and sometimes even escape Hell, and the souls involved could finally reach relief if they just ''stopped screwing each other over'' for one second. But if they were able to let that envy go, they wouldn't be in Hell. |
| 236 | * ''VideoGame/CityOfVillains'' features this in one story arc: you're tasked with rescuing the soul of a singer who made a DealWithTheDevil for his success, and he's convinced that it's being held somewhere hidden. His soul turns out to have been within him all along, tortured by his knowledge of his undeserving nature - in the form of demonic hecklers reminding him of this, as he croons light jazz of his plight for all eternity. |
| 237 | * ''VideoGame/FallenLondon'' has the Seeking Mr. Eaten's name quest, which consists of player character deliberately doing increasingly horrible things to themselves over and over. The quest is onerous both in-game [[MoneyGrinding and out]], consumes your items, resources, and even [[LevelDrain your stats]] in enormous quantities, and finishing it will brick your account and render it permanently unplayable. The quest was written as an experiment in seeing what players would be willing to do to themselves just to know what would happen next. |
| 238 | * Ajunta Pall in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' was one of the founders of the first [[TheEmpire Sith Empire]], whose [[SpiritAdvisor Force ghost]] is met in his tomb on Korriban. Unlike other ghosts, Pall never became one with [[BackgroundMagicField the Force]] upon death as he used his knowledge of Sith alchemy to [[BarredFromTheAfterlife tether his soul to the physical world]], essentially [[AndIMustScream trapping himself in a self-made purgatory]]. After realizing BeingEvilSucks 3000 years too late, [[KarmaMeter Light Side]] players can help him embrace the Light as well and move on. |
| 239 | * Hell Temple in ''VideoGame/LaMulana'', especially the original (non-remake) version, designed to be the worst experience possible for the player. Memorably reduced LetsPlay/DeceasedCrab to anguished wailing several times. |
| 240 | * This is TheReveal of ''VideoGame/MyLovelyDaughter'': [[spoiler:the events of the game were orchestrated by the Master Warlock, aka [[FutureMeScaresMe a future version of Faust himself]], in order to guarantee his own existance, [[FreakyFridayFlip steal Faust's body]] and prolong his own life. He succeeds; then Faust becomes the Master Warlock, decides that he enjoys his newfound power and wealth, and goes back in time to put his past self through the same ordeal]]. |
| 241 | * ''VideoGame/OracleOfTao'' has one of these, both of Heaven and Hell. Hell is an empty desolate waste, resembling [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yomi Yomi]], the Japanese equivalent. Heaven appears as a FluffyCloudHeaven, at first, but it turns out that both are based on the hero's conception of the fate she deserves. Her final destination is a sort of MundaneAfterlife resembling her living existence. |
| 242 | * ''Franchise/SilentHill'': |
| 243 | ** Although not technically Hell, the town of Silent Hill works on this principle; if its victims can free themselves of their guilt, they can leave unharmed. Otherwise, they are stranded in the nightmarish town until they succeed at this, get killed by the monsters or the town, or become one of its inhabitants. |
| 244 | ** In ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'', it's made clear that the baddies are only visible to certain people visiting there, and take on forms that represent the individual's hidden guilts. This is seemingly inconsistent with the other games, however; in the original, for example, it's clearly Alessa's vision of Silent Hill that's imposed on everyone else there, while in ''3'', the effect spreads beyond the original town, the source of the effect being Claudia. Except for ''Silent Hill 2'', though, the other games all take place during occult summoning rituals, so the town's state in the second game could be interpreted as the way the town usually works during a "downtime" of no demonic summonings. |
| 245 | ** According to the "Book of Lost Memories", an information book for the series, the appearance of the Otherworld in the first game caused the power of the town to increase, which is when it started calling to those who had darkness in their hearts, no matter their distance from its physical location. |
| 246 | ** People get pulled into each other's dark worlds. In the first Harry is pulled into Alessa's dark world and while the majority of ''Silent Hill 2'' takes place in James', we also get to see a glimpse of what Angela's and Eddie's are like; one of the monsters in the game (Abstract Daddy/Doormen) is Angela's creation, while the rest of them are James'. |
| 247 | ** Poor Angela suffers from the most tragically direct example of this. [[spoiler:She, Eddie and James have all been drawn to Silent Hill because each one did something that they feel guilty for. In Angela's case, she snapped and stabbed her sexually abusive father to death, possibly even in the act of violating her. Very few would condemn her for doing such a thing, but the years of physical and psychological torment heaped upon Angela by her father and mother led her to believe that she ''deserved'' it. As such, her personal dark world is an almost literal Hell, a burning place filled with graphic reminders of the abuse she suffered; this isn't because Silent Hill itself is passing judgment on her (indeed, the malevolent forces behind the town only seem interested in inflicting punishment, not doling out true justice), but because that's where she's convinced herself she belongs.]] |
| 248 | * Those taking Joy in ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'' would rather ruin themselves and stay in a self-imposed, self-destructive bubble than to admit they did [[NoodleIncident A Very Bad Thing]]. It's heavily implied that [[spoiler:the rest of Britain are doing fine but by acknowledging that fact, it also means acknowledging that Wellington Wells was perhaps the only town to deport their children to the Germans]]. |
| 249 | [[/folder]] |
| 250 | |
| 251 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 252 | * In David Hopkins' ''Webcomic/{{Jack|DavidHopkins}}'', Hell punishes sinners with this and IronicHell, and it makes a point of having particularly damned souls take up the mantle of the SevenDeadlySins, who arguably get worse treatment themed around the sin that's consumed them. [[spoiler:The titular Jack in particular cannot truly repent for his sins involving Wrath (and earn forgiveness) as he ''cannot remember them''; he asked for it before he died.]] |
| 253 | * In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick,'' it is eventually revealed that Roy's father is stuck on the lowest plane of the Lawful Good afterlife, on account of his vow to not rest until Xykon was wiped out once and for all. He's trapped there because he did virtually nothing to further that goal while alive, and instead shuffled it on to his son--[[spoiler:who, because he did everything he could to fulfill that vow, is admitted to the higher planes of heaven in spite of his failure]]--and will be forced to remain there until Xykon is destroyed. |
| 254 | -->'''Roy's Father:''' That's not fair!\ |
| 255 | '''Solar:''' Yes it is. And that's why you're upset. |
| 256 | ** In other words, "It's The Thought That Counts" - but the fact that Roy fully intends to [[spoiler:walk right out the [[DeathIsCheap revolving door]] and get back to fighting Xykon]] probably scores him some points, whereas his father just remains where he is out of sloth. |
| 257 | * It's a point of contention in ''Webcomic/PicturesForSadChildren''. Jeremy thinks Hell tries to serve up ironic punishments but is really bad at it. On the other hand, Paul thinks that the folks in Hell are already punishing themselves. |
| 258 | -->'''Jeremy:''' I gotta download every album that came out this year. What if I need to make like a top ten list.\ |
| 259 | '''Paul:''' That's a waste of time.\ |
| 260 | '''Jeremy:''' But I should enjoy this while I can, right? Soon Hell will figure out how to punish me and take the internet away.\ |
| 261 | '''Paul:''' How is that enjoying, that is gonna be a month of terrible music. ''[BeatPanel]'' And they don't have to figure out how to punish us. They just let us keep doing what we were doing. |
| 262 | * ''WebComic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'': In [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/heaven-2 "Heaven 2",]] Heaven becomes Hell to a philosopher due to all the FridgeLogic about how it works. It's implied it wouldn't have been a problem if she didn't think about it so hard, although what she said about it isn't disproven in any other sense. In the bonus punchline, she voluntarily goes to Hell instead (though it's not clear it's not just for a visit). |
| 263 | [[/folder]] |
| 264 | |
| 265 | [[folder:Web Originals]] |
| 266 | * ''[[http://www.viruscomix.com/estar.html Captain Estar Goes to Heaven]]'' by [[Webcomic/{{Subnormality}} Winston Rowntree]] contains probably the most heartbreaking example ever conceived in how it concludes. |
| 267 | * TheGrimReaper in ''[[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/72146 The Grim Reaper Show]]'' loves to give these sort of fates to the souls he sends to the afterlife. When he reaps the occupants of a crashed plane, he sends all the Christians to burn in Hell for eternity, the Jews to rot in their graves until the Messianic Age (at which point they'll party it up with God for all time), the Hindus are [[{{Reincarnation}} reincarnated]] (one comes back as a gnat, another as Creator/DavidHasselhoff's son, and a third one as a left testicle), the one Satanist is ''sent to Heaven'', and another guy invented his own religion with its own afterlife (the Floating Island of Mandango, [[FreeLoveFuture where there is no jealousy or boredom, and everyone lives a life of steaming hot sex and wine drinking for the rest of eternity]]). The single agnostic on the flight gets to choose and wisely opts for the floating island the last guy had. |
| 268 | * One piece of internet fiction had a variation: a mobster is killed and wakes up in a replica of his city, complete with people, and finds himself in a GroundhogDayLoop situation. His guide, a beautiful woman, informs him he has the freedom to do anything because the next day it resets. After hundreds of days of killing his rivals in assorted bloody ways, casual murder, rape, assault, and other assorted mayhem (including raping and torturing his guide), he realizes he's in a personal hell and wishes to escape. And then finds out the only way he can do it is to repeat the day as someone else in the city, including each of his victims each time he affected them. And then he has the realization that the only person left is his guide, who thanks him for allowing him/her to redeem him/herself, and disappears as s/he prepares to receive himself arriving. |
| 269 | [[/folder]] |
| 270 | |
| 271 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 272 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' episode "Shadows of the Past," Goliath, Angela, Elisa, and Bronx return to the site of Castle Wyvern, where the massacre of Goliath's clan took place. Throughout the episode, Goliath is hearing the voices of the Captain and Hakon and thinks he may be going crazy. Eventually, we realize that the ghosts of Hakon and the Captain were trapped there because of their hatred for Goliath (combined with some magic phlebotinum). In the end, though, the Captain realizes that he was really hating himself for betraying Goliath, saves his life, and is freed from his prison. Hakon, meanwhile, is trapped with "no one left to hate." |
| 273 | * Though it's not the afterlife, Princess Luna from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' felt [[EasilyForgiven she was let off far too easily]] for the pain and suffering she caused as [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Nightmare Moon]], so she created a magical being called the Tantabus that would force her to relive the past in her dreams, ensuring she would never forget what she'd done. This backfires when the Tantabus begins infesting other ponies' dreams and feeding on Luna's guilt as she tries in vain to contain it, trapping her in an endless cycle of self-loathing until the other ponies convince her to finally forgive herself. |
| 274 | [[/folder]] |
| 275 | |
| 276 | [[folder:Other]] |
| 277 | * The 18th-century philosopher, theologian, and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg claimed to have made several spirit journeys to heaven. While everyone eventually goes to heaven, he said he had also seen cases where people who were truly unwilling to accept their beliefs in life were wrong spend all eternity in frustration. |
| 278 | * Many Catholic mystics have claimed over the years that Hell and Purgatory are technically self-inflicted, with souls willingly entering there after seeing God. The idea is that the souls of the damned are evil and cannot bear being withs someone as good as God. After all, people end up going to Hell in the first place for sins they committed, and refused to repent over, by their own free will. The souls in Purgatory go there out of shame, but, being ultimately good deep down, still anticipate Heaven. The souls in Heaven accept God as he is and enjoy his company. Christ allegedly told St. Catherine of Siena the situation is similar to how a healthy eye can enjoy light, while a sick eye can be repulsed by it. |
| 279 | [[/folder]] |
| 280 |
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